Before the Flames
by Gael Grimm
Summary: After an unknown battle Sephiroth is rescued and cared for by a Cetra woman with a difficult past. Rated T for inferences. One shot. Enjoy! R&R


Mayla rode hard across the desert hoping the harsh winds would clear her mind of the fact that the orphanage had once again disallowed here to have custody of her sister. _One more year_, she reminded herself, _one more year and Kai would be free to make her own choice._ Ahead she saw a figure that seemed to want to stand but was having little to no luck. As she neared she slowed her motorbike. From the looks of him he was terribly injured. She stopped the bike and dismounted to stand beside the figure. His silver hair was clotted together by mud and dried blood, his breath was labored. Mayla knelt beside him and lifted some of his hair, his face was high-cheeked, marred with cuts and smudged with dirt. She reached her hand out to him and he slapped it away.

"Let me help you Sephiroth." She said and his eyes showed shock. "Yes I know who you are and I still want to help you. Will you let me?" She reached for him and he didn't shy away this time. Carefully she lifted him and helped him to her bike. As he sat slumped forward on her bike she carefully slid in front of him. "Hold on this could be bumpy," she warned. As he wrapped an arm around her waist, she felt a warm swell in her but she shook it off and carefully made her way home.

When they arrived she braced him and carefully brought him through the house. When they entered the small bedroom she sat him on her bed. Carefully she examined the extent of the wounds, most were moderate and thankfully others were superficial. One concerned her though, a large and quite deep gash ran down his back deep enough in some places that she could see bone. Leaning his arm against the wall she steadied him and walked to her worn dresser. Looking back she noted his eyes were closed and she quickly pulled off the button up shirt she had put on to speak with the agent and put on a leather top. Clasping the top eye hooks she turned to look at him. "What to do with you now?" she asked sliding a pair of worn leather pants on under her skirt, before siding that off as well.

Returning to Sephiroth's side she looked him over and unclasped his coat. He winced when she touched his shoulder but still had not spoken a single word to her. The heavy coat fell quickly on to the unused blankets. The laceration was already infected, the edges bright red and puss starting to seep from where the scab had split open, with dirt and small stones embedded in the skin.

"I'll need you to sew that." Sephiroth spoke for the first time since she had brought him into her home. Mayla smiled his voice was deep, rich and smooth. Everything she had expected out of the finest member of SOLDIER.

"Of course it would be an honor to attend to your coat." She said pulling his long silver hair over one shoulder.

"While the coat will need some tending, I meant my back. The wound will not heal correctly otherwise. Have you had experience with this?" He asked wearily.

"No. I've never had call to. But it shouldn't be difficult."

"Are you squeamish around blood." Mayla shook her head. "Then it's just like moist or wet cloth." He said tired and indifferent.

"Then we'll need to get you into the bath and cleaned up a bit first." Mayla said, a wicked grin on her face.

He raised an eyebrow. "We'll?" He questioned.

"Unless you can stand on your own, you'll need my help." Her smile widened. "Besides I always wanted to see the wonderful shape one needed to be in to join SOLDIER."

"There may be a token to you after all my dear." He scoffed and smiled back at her. "Very well then, let's have it over with." He tried to stand and pitched sideways into the wall. "Looks like you'll have to help me undress as well." She slowly guided him to one bed and sat him down.

"While I do look forward to it, there are other things that I must attend to first." Mayla left to the next room and the sound of running water announcing that one task was complete. When she returned she retrieved towels and soaps. "I can't guarantee how masculine you will smell after this. You'll most likely smell like sandalwood and cinnamon."

"What difference should it make." He said as he winced in pain from moving.

Setting the things in the adjoining room she returned and looked at him, wobbling a pace or two from the bed he originally sat, His shirt half off broad chest exposed. "Feeling more ambitious or do you just not want help?"

"Call it a man's pride." He smirked and started to teeter forward.

Racing forward she managed to catch him. "Your pride takes another hit I see. Come on you." She said helping him to the full bath.

"Not joining me?"

"No I don't think so. Besides you're the one that needs cleaning. Now lets get you in the tub." She said her smile a little more tuned down. Almost automatically she did away with his pants no girlish blushing or lustful remark, simply on autopilot. Sephiroth simply looked down at her as she steadied him so he could slowly step into the warm bath. "Try to lean forward your back shouldn't touch the edge." Lighting a candle near the tub she heated a knife over it. "This will hurt" she solemnly said and leaned toward him. She had to give him some credit he didn't so much as suck in a breath as she used the hot knife to cut away the scab and inflamed skin, each time wiping the knife on a clean hand towel. When she finished she cleaned the knife in hot tap water and put it away. "I'll be right back" she told him and went to retrieve a tumbler and something low for her to sit on

When she left Sephiroth turned and looked at the soiled towel. He was surprised by just how soiled it was and how well she seemed to know what she was doing. He stopped and questioned how she knew it all so well. When she returned with a tall drinking glass and a low stool he gave he a questioning look.

"Can't use to water in the tub it's already to dirty." She said a resumed her place behind him. Mayla ran more tap water and filled the glass. Over and over she used it to rinse the wound she cleaned on his back when she felt it was clean enough at the moment she moved to the side of the tub and washed him down with a sponge and her cinnamon soap. The soap made his skin slightly pinker, giving him color he didn't have before. While she washed him he relaxed and leaned back only to snap quickly back into a sitting position. "I told you not to lean back," she scolded with an almost maternal smirk.

"Well, my dear, you are just to good at this." She smiled up at him as deviously as before. "You never did tell me your name." he hinted.

"Mayla" she replied.

"Well Mayla, how is it you know how to do this so well?"

"My mother taught me and my sister this at an early age." She stood and began washing his hair with sandalwood rinse. She finished quietly hoping he wouldn't ask any other questions. After rinsing the wound on his back some more. She made to help him from the bath.

As she bent forward some of her auburn hair slid over her shoulder and he noticed a scar that peaked out from under it. "What happened here?" he asked brushing a finger across the area.

"I'd rather no discuss it." She said her eyes shying away from his. Slowly she began to lift him up by the shoulders aiding him to his feet. When he stood she wrapped one towel around his waist and used the other to dry him from head to foot very Mayla dried Sephiroth she tried to bury the memories his question had dredged up. Having finally met the man who's stories filled her dreams she didn't want memories of her family blocking away some peace.

She brought him back to the bed he had sat on before and tossed his coat on to the bed across from it, where it landed beside some more hand towels and a small basket. Sitting him down again she walked to a chest at its foot and from it produced a pair of cotton pants. He lifted an eyebrow and she replied, "They were my father's," she pushed out a breath after the last word. "I hope that the fact they are white won't cause a problem. They should be big enough. Do you need help?" He nodded and she brought them over and slide them on him as he managed to stand with out losing the towel. They did indeed fit and she was amazed at how angelic he looked in them. "They should do then." She said helping him sit sideways on the bed.

Sephiroth watched her as she went to the other bed, retrieved the little basket and she pulled out a small curved needle with some sturdy thread. The needle surprised him as she had said she had never sew someone together before. "I thought you hadn't do this before?"

"It never have, my mother did. The sewing basket was hers." She looked down sadly while she threaded the needle. "Unfortunately your back won't be flawless any more it will leave a nasty scar."

"What's a soldier without scars?" He remarked with a rather sad sarcasm.

Mayla grabbed another towel and softly padded more blood from his wound. "Why do you sound so sad when you say that?" She asked as she began the row of small tight stitches.

"My own reasons." He replied just as sorrowfully.

"I'm sorry it wasn't my place to ask." She said and a long silence stretched between them before she said, "You are welcome to stay here until you heal if you like. It's quiet and no one will bother you." She quickly finished the stitches and cut the string dabbing the wound again with the now blood soaked towel. She took a second one into the bathroom and wet it.

Sephiroth wasn't quite sure what had made him so melancholy all of a sudden and just watched her walk away. The look of her legs and buttocks made him smile a bit and let very ungentlemanly thoughts enter his mind. Her own secrets vexed him though and it seemed to put him out a bit that her playful and audacious attitude from before had washed away. She returned with a damp towel and patted his brow with cold water before also patting it on his wound. From under her arm she produced a roll of gauze wrap and a hand full of gauze padding. She bid him to lie down and placed the padding on the wound before cautiously sitting him up and wrapping the wound so the padding would stay.

"Ordinarily I would just tape it but I have a feeling it will need to be changed in the morning." She said passively as she walked back to her dresser and returned with a brush. With him sitting up she took time to brush out the long silver locks, almost tenderly.

"Would you be able to fashion some way to keep my hair off my back?" He asked absentmindedly as she continued. She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair and separated it into sections. As she braided his hair she unconsciously hummed to herself until she finished. "Would it be easier from me to sleep on my stomach? What I mean is do you think my back will bleed on to the sheets?" He asked slightly disappointed she had stopped both brushing his hair and humming.

"You will undoubtedly bleed on the sheets but please sleep how ever you will be comfortable. I'll be right back with some thing to help you sleep." She said As she left the room again.

Mayla entered the kitchen and blended some tea that would help him sleep and as she smelt it she realized how tired she was herself. Returning with a cup for him she found him in the middle of attempting to lay on his stomach. "Could you help me, it seems I can't do anything myself today?" He asked routed by his condition. Smiling warmly she sat the mug of tea on the small table between the beds and gently she guided him to the mattress and rubbed his shoulders.

"Now how are you going to drink this?" She asked holding the mug again.

"I'll just sip off it," he said cautiously taking it in his hand.

"Now I'm going to wash. Will you need anything else right off?"

"No, Thank you Mayla."

"Why?" She asked confused by his gratitude.

"I had been there for a day already I doubt any one else would have stopped it seems pretty isolated out here. Even then you did stop and you didn't have to."

"Well you are welcome but I've never heard anyone be thankful for someone taking large chunks of skin off them." She said and brushed his hair from his eyes. "I'll keep the door open. If you need me just call." With that she walked into the bathroom.

Sephiroth nipped at the tea and realized he was actually very thirsty. He drank half the cup before he was to tired to stay awake and he reached up and set it on the table. Tucking his arms under his head he drifted off hoping he didn't move in his sleep.

When Mayla finished her bath she dressed in a thinner dark green day dress and left the heat of the bathroom. When she entered the bedroom she found it full of the sound of Sephiroth's even breathing. Looking at him dressed and draped in white she was comforted by him sleeping, to her it showed his trust. Picking up the sewing basket she sat on her bed with his jacket in front of her. This piece had definitely seen better days but she dutifully sat and pieced it back together singing as she worked. It was a song in the old language, a language no one knew any more. Something passed down in her family. She sang of the eternal plain, heaven if you will, a beautiful thing no one believed in any more.

Slowly Sephiroth awoke to a voice that sang softly and even though he didn't understand the words it made him feel slightly up lifted from his pain. Opening his eyes he looked over at Mayla sewing his coat it was soiled and badly torn. If he decided to return he would need a new one. He stopped to think for a moment. There was no room for question he had to return, SOLDIER was his job, his duty. Somewhere in his mind though he wondered if it were possible to live the same kind of life Mayla did, to be self reliant and below Shinra's radar, to be normal, have a family. _Would Mayla have one with me?_ Closing his eyes he listened to her voice and fell back to sleep. He would speak with her about where they were and just how long it would take for him to heal.

Mayla didn't wake to the birds as usual, she woke to a scream of pain, a primal agonizing sound. Sitting up out of bed she looked around and found Sephiroth screaming in the bed next to hers. Jumping up she tried to wake him to tell him he was just dreaming but she could not. Looking to the clock she realized it was still night time. Sephiroth had made his way on to his back and was clutching on to the blankets to him. He was only quieted when she touched him. Given how he was laying she warily tried to lie next to him. However, half way through this attempted he guided her to him and wrapped an arm around her. Being that she had him quieted she tried to return to her own bed. She soon found that he held her tightly and she had little to no choice other then to sleep where she was. Not being one to pass opportunity by she took advantage of her predicament and curled into him making herself comfortable with is warmth.


End file.
